Friday, September 20, 2013

The Rape Epidemic

My mother calls me up daily in the
evening to know whether I have reached my flat safely from office. When I am
travelling in a train or a bus, she is on tenterhooks till I have arrived
at my destination and come out of the public transport safely. If I am watching
a movie in a theatre at night or attending a birthday treat by a friend, my
mother doesn’t sleep till I have called her on reaching my flat later. Though
she is miles away from me, her heart and mind is always here with me, no matter
where I am. Whether I am in the office or in a shopping mall. Or simply walking
on a road to a market or travelling in a bus. She feels anxious and restless
and feels satisfied only when I am in front of her at home. And so do a million
mothers in India. Their reason for greatest worry stalks the Indian streets and
public transports in broad day-light. They fear those hungry pair of lustful
eyes that searches for its prey in cities at night time. Thanks a million to
rapists. Because of them, women have learned to live a scared life at every
place and regard every unknown man with distrustful eyes in the 21st
century independent India.

According to the National Crime
Records Bureau, one woman in every 22 minutes gets raped in India. Delhi has
reclaimed the title of being India’s rape capital. It witnessed over 700 rape
cases in 2012 which is the highest in last 10 years. In a recent verdict,
rapists involved in the 2012 Delhi gang rape case have been sentenced to death.
But does this mean that no further rapes will happen in future? Will this
verdict serve any purpose to those evil minds that treat women as sexual
objects and rip their bodies apart? We think that this critical
verdict will send out a strong warning to all rapists. We think that
justice has been delivered and so all is well now. But keep reading newspapers
and we may end up reading about another rape case in the country.

A rapist can be anybody. A commoner
walking behind you on a road or a rich guy in a party. Rapists have their
own family. A rapist can be a brother or a son. He can be a father or a
husband. He can work in a multinational company or can be a security guard
outside a colony. Education doesn’t come into picture here. Literate men commit
rape with as much liberty as an uneducated ruffian. There are MLAs and
politicians facing rape charges and still ruling our country. There are power
hungry men who do it and silence the victim forever with a revolver. Most of
the cases report that the woman knew the man and so she opened the door and he
raped her. Women have been and will remain to be the vulnerable gender in
India. Women are not safe even from acquaintances anymore. And what about the
rape cases that have never been reported? What about those woman who have kept
their mouths shut for fear of rejection from the society? Their rapists are
still at large in the society, happily going on with their work because they
are assured that their victim will never expose them. And it becomes a boon for
them when victims commit suicide.

We talk rather bravely about
how a rape victim must speak out in public. But the society itself
has to be blamed when victims decide to go into their own shells forever.
Whenever any rape happens, there is an uproar in the media. Journalists leave
no stone unturned and take interviews of the victim’s family, friends and
neighbours. In a bid to reveal the truth, society pounces on the victim’s
privacy and lead to further mental pressure for her. There is a court to
deliver justice and a police to do the investigation. But media and society
take up the matter into their own hands. We urge such victims to not feel any
shame and we-are-with-you lines are hurled at them. But it requires a lot
of time, counselling and family support to come out of the tentacles of rape
and the resultant injustices wreaked by society. In such a scenario, what about
a six-year-old girl allegedly raped by her neighbour? Or what about a
seven-year-old girl raped in a toilet on a train? Their innocent minds
wouldn’t have even registered what was happening with them. And what about a
four-year-old student, who on the pretext of showing magic, was taken to the
backseat of a parked school bus and was raped by a school bus cleaner? How to
counsel them about such a heinous crime when they have just started their
childhoods? How to teach a 5-year-old kid to be on alert round-the-clock and
protect herself from rapists that might be lurking in her school yard?

So where the solution lies?

It’s the mindset that needs a
drastic change. But for how long do we have to wait before the mindset of
rapists changes? 10 years? 50 years? Or the next century perhaps? And how do we
change the mindset of a rapist anyway?

Maybe my mother
will have to keep bearing with her panic attacks regarding my safety throughout
her life. Thanks to the wretched world outside. And then one day, probably I’ll
be doing the same thing if I have a daughter in future. And then in turn, she
will be doing the same thing if she has a daughter…..…..

5 comments:

nice post. But the punishment against rapists in the Arabian countries is the best and only way to stop it. Changing mind set of the people is never going to happen. The govt which is supposed to take cation, is busy doing the crime. Goons all around.

This epidemic has not only created panic among women but also it is a shame for the country. There is news that foreign tourists particularly women tourists are afraid of visiting our country due to these repeated raping incidents.Stern action to be taken to curb the menace at the earliest.

In many blog sites like this site whenever I make a comment, it is mentioned that the comment will be visible after approval. In many cases I have to enter some letters and numbers which are not clearly visible(as security measure!). Since I don't know immediately whether my comment has been published or not and not possible to go to the sites again to verify it, I have stopped making comments in such blogs. In my blog I kept it open and readers can comment without such restrictions.

I know that this will also be published only after your approval. :-)svsaibaba@yahoo.com

Regarding this comment moderation, I had not put this restriction during my initial days of blogging. But later due to work load, I could not visit my own blogs regularly and failed to view the comments on each blog. Meanwhile, many comments started getting published without my permission that had plug-ins and were mainly aimed at promoting different products. That turned out to be quite frustrating. I deleted them many times but failed to put them on hold forever. I write my blogs whenever I feel strongly for some topic. But when some people knowingly put comments that are only aimed at promoting their ads but nothing related to the blog, then it is so not done.

So a couple of months back only, I have started using the section 'comments under moderation' to discourage any promoters putting unrelated comments on my blog posts without my permission.